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Liber Causae
17
This Synopsis has been compiled from Aleister Crowley's writings; sources
are referenced at the end of the Synopsis. Crowley's explanation of the
meaning of the title and/or number ascribed to each book follows each
description. Publishing histories and full bibliographic information for the
books described may be found in Appendices B and C. ED.
INTRODUCTION
LIBER LXI
Liber Causae. The Preliminary Lection, including the History Lection.
Explains the actual history of the origin of the present movement. Its
statements are accurate in the ordinary sense of the word. The object of the
book is to discount mythopoeia.21 A manuscript giving an account of the
history of the A... A... in recent times. This history contains no
mythology; it is a statement of facts susceptible of rational proof.
LXI See Sepher Sephiroth. The allusion is to the fact that this book
forms an introduction to the series.
THE HOLY BOOKS LIBER I Liber B Vel Magi This is an account of the
Grade of Magus, the highest grade which it is ever possible to manifest in any
way whatever upon this plane. Or so it is said by the Masters of the Temple.
The Book of the Magus
This is an inspired writing. It describes the conditions of that exalted
Grade. I had at this time no idea that I should ever attain to it; in fact,
I thought it utterly beyond possibility. This book was given to me that I
might avoid mistakes when the time came for me to become a Magus. It is
impossible to give any idea of the terror and sublimity of this book, while
the accuracy of its predictions and of its description of the state of being,
at that time wholly beyond my imagination to conceive, make it a most
astonishing document.24 I is the number of the Magus in the Tarot.
LIBER VII
Liber Liberi Vel Lapidis Lazuli, Adumbratio Kabbalae gyptiorum Sub Figura VII,
being the Voluntary Emancipation of a certain Exempt Adept from his Adeptship.
These are the Birth Words of a Master of the Temple. The nature of this book
is sufficiently explained by its title. Its seven chapters are referred to
the seven planets in the following order: Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Sol, Mercury,
Luna, Venus.
The Book of Lapis Lazuli
Gives in magical language an account of the Initiation of a Master of the
Temple. This is the only parallel, for Beauty of Ecstasy, to Liber LXV.
The full knowledge of the interpretation of this book is concealed from
all save only the Sixfold Star.
The Neophyte must nevertheless acquire a copy and thoroughly acquaint
himself with the contents. He must commit one chapter to memory.
VII
Refers to the 7 chapters, and to the fact that the number 7 is peculiarly
suitable to the subject of the Book.
LIBER X Liber Porta Lucis This book is an acount of the sending forth
of the Master by the A... A... and an explanation of his mission.
This book is called The Gate of Light. It explains how those who have
attained initiation, taking pity upon the darkness and minuteness of the
earth, send forth a messenger to men. The message follows. It is an appeal to
those who, being developed beyond the average of their fellows, see fit to
take up the Great Work. This work is then described in general terms with a
few hints of its conditions.
X Porta Lucis, the Gate of Light, is one of the titles of Malkuth,
whose number is X.
LIBER XXVII
Liber Trigrammaton, being a book of Trigrams of the Mutations of the T
with the YIN and the YG account of the cosmic process: corresponding to the
Stanzas of DZYAN in another system.
Vel Trigrammaton
It describes the Course of Creation under the Figure of the Interplay of
Three Principles. The book corresponding to the Stanzas of Dzyan.
The full knowledge of the interpretation of this book is concealed from
all.
The Practicus must nevertheless acquire a copy, thoroughly acquaint
himself with the contents, and commit them to memory.
XXVII
The number of permutations of 3 things taken 3 at a time, and (of
course) the cube of 3.3
LIBER LXV
Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente
An account of the relations of the Aspirant with his Holy Guardian Angel.
This book is given to Probationers, as the attainment of the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is the Crown of the Outer College.
Similarly Liber VII is given to Neophytes, as the grade of Master of the
Temple is the next resting-place, and Liber CCXX to Zelator, since that
carries him to the highest of all possible grades. Liber XXVII is given to
the Practicus, as in this book is the ultimate foundation of the highest
theoretical Qabalah, and Liber DCCCXIII to the Philosophus, as it is the
foundation of the highest practical Qabalah.
The Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent
This magical treatise describes particularly the relation of the Aspirant
with his Higher Self. It is, alike in conception and execution, a masterpiece
of exaltation of thought, carved in Pure Beauty.
The five chapters refer to the five Elements.
1-Earth, 2-Air, 3-Water, 4-Fire, and 5-Spirit. Each shows its Element in
the light of the relation between the Adeptus Minor and his Holy Guardian
Angel.
The full knowledge of the interpretation of this book is concealed from all
save only the Shining Triangle.
The Probationer must nevertheless acquire a copy and thoroughly acquaint
himself with the contents. He must commit one chapter to memory.
LXV
The number of Adonai.
LIBER LXVI Liber Stellae Rubae. A secret ritual, the Heart of IO
delivered unto V.V.V.V.V. for his use in a certain matter of Liber Legis, and
written down under the figure LXVI. This book is sufficiently described by
the title.
The Book of the Ruby Star
Describes an extremely powerful ritual of practical Magick; how to arouse
the Magical Force within the operator and how to use it to create whatever may
be required.
LXVI
The sum of the first 11 numbers. This book relates to Magic, whose Key
is 11.
LIBER XC
Liber TZADDI Vel Hamus Hermeticus Sub Figurae XC
An account of Initiation, and an indication as to those who are suitable
for the same.
The Book of the Hermetic Fish-Hook
Summons mankind to undertake the Great Work. It describes the conditions
of initiation and its results in language of great poetic power.
XC
Tzaddi means a fish-hook. I will make you fishers of men.
LIBER CLVI Liber Cheth Vel Vallum Abiegni Sub Figurae CLVI
This book is a perfect account of the task of the Exempt Adept, considered
under the symbols of a particular plane, not the intellectual.
The Wall of Abiegnus
The Wall of Abiegnus (the Sacred Mountain of the Rosicrucians) gives the
formula of Attainment by devotion to our Lady Babalon. It instructs the
aspirant how to dissolve his personality in the Universal Life.
CLVI Babalon, to whom the book refers. See Sepher Sephiroth.
LIBER CCXX
Liber AL Vel Legis Sub Figurae CCXX as delivered by LXXVIII unto DCLXVI
This book is the foundation of the new on, and thus of the whole of our
Work.
In this revelation is the basis of the future on. Within the memory of man
we have had the Pagan period, the worship of Nature, of Isis, of the Mother,
of the Past; the Christian period, the worship of Man, of Osiris, of the
Present. The first period is simple, quiet, easy, and pleasant; the material
ignores the spiritual; the second is of suffering and death: the spiritual
strives to ignore the material. Christianity and all cognate religions worship
death, glorify suffering, deify corpses. The new on is the worship of the
spiritual made one with the material, of Horus, of the Child, of the Future.
Isis was Liberty; Osiris, bondage; but the new Liberty is that of Horus.
Osiris conquered her because she did not understand him. Horus avenges both
his Father and his Mother. This child Horus is a twin, two in one. Horus and
Harpocrates are one, and they are also one with Set or Apophis, the destroyer
of Osiris.
It is by the destruction of the principle of death that they are born. The
establishment of this new on, this new fundamental principle, is the great
work now to be accomplished in the world.
To recapitulate the historical basis of The Book of the Law, let me say
that evolution (within human memory) shows three great steps:
the worship of the Mother, when the universe was conceived as simple
nourishment drawn directly from her; the worship of the Father, when the
universe was imagined as catastrophic; the worship of the Child, in which we
come to perceive events as a continual growth partaking in its elements of
both these methods.
Generally, The Book of the Law claims to answer all possible religious
problems. One is struck by the fact that so many of them are stated and
settled separately in so short a space.
It reconciles cosmologial conceptions which transcend time and space with
a conventional, historical point of view. In the first place it announces
unconditional truth, but in the second is careful to state that the Magical
Formula (or system of principles) on which the practical part of the book is
based is not an absolute truth but one relative to the terrestrial time of the
revelation. (It is a strong point in favour of the Book that it makes no
pretence to settle the practical problems of humanity once and for all. It
contents itself with indicating a stage in evolution.)
The full knowledge of the interpretation of this book is concealed from all.
The Zelator must nevertheless acquire a copy, thoroughly acquaint himself
with the contents, and commit them to memory.
The number of the Verses in the three chapters of the Book. It has, however,
an enormous amount of symbolism; in particular it combines the 10 Sephiroths
and 22 Paths; 78 is . For 666 vide Sepher Sephiroth.
LIBER XXI AL (Liber Legis), The Book of the Law Sub Figurae XXXI as delivered
by Aiwass to Ankh-f-n-khonsu, The Priest of the Princes Who is 666
I, a master of English, was made to take down in three hours, from
dictation, sixty-five pages of words not only strange, but often displeasing
to me in themselves; concealing in cipher propositions unknown to me, majestic
and profound; foretelling events public and private beyond my control, or that
of any man.
This Book proves:
there is a Person thinking and acting in a praeterhuman manner, either
without a body of flesh, or with the power of communicating telepathically with
men and inscrutably directing their actions.
LIBER CCXXXI
Liber Arcanorum
ATUTUTI Q(A)S VIDIT ASAR IN AMENNTI Sub Figurae
CCXXXI Liber Carcerorum
QLIPHOTH cum suis Geniis. Adduntur Sigilla et Nomina Eorum.
This is an account of the cosmic process so far as it is indicated by the
Tarot Trumps.
Liber CCXXXI (XXII Domarum XXII Carcerorum)
Liber CCXXXI is a technical treatise on the Tarot. The sequence of the 22
Trumps is explained as a formula of initiation.
CCXXXI
Sum of the numbers 0.....22 printed on the Tarot Trumps.
LIBER CCCLXX
Liber A'ASH Vel Capricorni Pneumatici Sub Figurae CCCLXX
Contains the true secret of all practical magick.21
The Book of Creation or of the Goat of the Spirit
Analyzes the nature of the creative magical force in man, explains how
to awaken it, how to use it and indicates the general as well as the
particular objects to be gained thereby.
The Interpretation of this Book will be given to members of the
Grade of Dominus Liminis on application, each to his Adeptus.
CCCLXX
Creation.
LIBER CD
Liber T Vel Kabbalae Trium Literarum Sub Figurae CD
A graphic interpretation of the Tarot on the plane of initiation.
Liber CD analyzes the Hebrew alphabet into seven triads, each of
which forms a Trinity of sympathetic ideas relating respectively to the Three
Orders comprised in the A... A.... It is really an attempt to find a Periodic
Law in the system.
This analysis may be checked by adding the columns vertically, 69,
81, 93, 114, 135, 246, 357. Dividing by 3 we get 23, 27, 31, 38, 45, 82, 119,
which in the Sepher Sephiroth mean respectively Life, Purity, Negation,
384116418, Innocent, Formation, Prayer, Weeping. The analogies are obvious.
CD
From the large Tau in the diagram.
LIBER DCCCXIII
Vel Ararita Sub Figurae DLXX
This book is an account of the Hexagram and the method of reducing it
to the Unity, and Beyond.
This book describes in magical language a very secret process of
Initiation.
ARARITA (a name of God, which is a Notariqon of the sentence: One
is His beginning; One is his Individuality; His Permutation One.) The use of
this Name and Formula is to equate and identify every idea with its opposite;
thus being released from the obsession of thinking any one of them as true
(and therefore binding); one can withdraw oneself from the whole sphere of the
Ruach. Contrast each verse of Cap. I with the corresponding verse of Cap.
II for the first of these methods. Thus in Cap III (still verse by verse
correspondence) the Quintessence of the ideas is extracted; and in Cap. IV
they are withdrawn each one into the one beyond it. In Cap. V they have
disappeared into the Method itself. In Cap. VI they reappear in the Form
appointed by the Will of the Adept. Lastly, in Cap. VII they are dissolved,
one into the next until all finally disappear in the Fire Qadosh, the
Quintessence of Reality.
The full knowledge of the interpretation of this book is concealed
from all.
The Philosophus must nevertheless acquire a copy and thoroughly
acquaint himself with the contents. He must commit one chapter to memory.
DCCCXIII
See Sepher Sephiroth.
1. A Syllabus of the Official Instructions of the A...A.... Hitherto
Published, The Equinox I(10), (New York: Weiser, 1972), pp. 43-47.
2. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ed. Symonds and Grant (Boston:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982), pp. 673-4.
3. A Syllabus of the Official Instructions of the A... A... Hitherto
Published, loc. cit., pp. 53-56.
4. Praemonstrance of A... A.... and Curriculum of A...A...., The Equinox
III(1), (New York: Weiser, 1972), pp. 11-38.
5. Preliminary Analysis of Liber LXV, Sothis I(?) (St. Albans, Herts., 19??),
pp. ??-??.
6. The Equinox of the Gods (London: O.T.O., 1936), pp. 104-5.
7. Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of the Law, ed. Symonds
and Grant (Montreal: 93 Publishing, 1974), p. ???.
8. The Equinox of the Gods, op. cit., p. 134.
9. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, 7op. cit., p. 399.
10. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, 7op. cit., p. ???.
11. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, 7op. cit., p. 308.
12. Index to Volume One, The Equinox I(10), (New York: Weiser, 1972), pp.
???-???.
13. Liber XXX rum Vel Saeculi Sub Figurae CDXVIII The Vision and the Voice,
with a Commentary by The Master Therion (Barstow, Calif.: Thelema Publishing
Co., 1952), p. 43n.
Which G-file (Q=Quit) ?
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